ABIDE WITH US!
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Epistle Lesson; 1 Peter 1:17-21
Old Testament Lesson; Acts 2:14, 36-47
Sermon Text; Luke 24:13-35
On a scale of one to ten, if one is a very weak, flickering faith that is barely there, is barely hanging on and has difficulty believing and trusting in the promises of God, and on the other hand ten is a strong, immovable, firm faith that cannot be shaken and cannot ever be moved, where would your faith be? On a scale of one to ten, where would you rank the strength of your faith? Are you closer to a one, or are you closer to a ten?
Are you like David, facing Goliath, the enemy? The odds were impossible for David to defeat Goliath and yet David had that strong, firm, unshakable faith! He knew God’s promise that he would be able to defeat his enemies, no matter what the odds were. He went out firmly and bravely and fought against Goliath.
Are you like David, or are you more like Peter, who in the face of the enemy, at Jesus’ trail, was scared to death and denied that he even knew his savior?
Are you closer to a ten or are you closer to a one?
Are you more like St. Paul, who in the face of all kinds of trials, whose life was threatened many, many times, firmly stood up and spoke about his savior? He wasn’t afraid to talk about his savior and he wasn’t afraid of any trials that may come, for the sake of Christ.
Or are you more like the disciples in the ship, on that stormy night? They were terrified, when they began to fear that the ship was going to sink and they were going to go down in death.
Are you closer to a ten, or are you closer to a one?
Are you more like Joseph, who when Potifers wife tempted Joseph to commit adultery with her, Joseph firmly said, "How could I do this great evil and sin against God?" And then, he fled.
Or are you more like King David, who in a moment of weakness, peered across and saw Bath Sheba bathing on the roof? His heart fell into lust, causing him to fall into weakness, temptation and sin.
Are you closer to a ten or are you closer to a one?
When you pray, do you pray with all fervency pouring out your heart to God for long periods of time, continuing to concentrate on what you are praying? Or do you find it hard to pray and seldom pray? And when you do pray, is it hard to pay attention to what you are praying?
Are you closer to a ten or are you closer to a one?
Are you able to grasp all the deep teachings of scripture? Do you firmly cling to all the teachings, whether it is the trinity, or predestination or justification? Do you cling to those, knowing them well enough to be able to articulate them, explaining them and firmly stand in them?
Or do you struggle, not able to explain all the teachings of scripture, hardly able to explain even the simple teachings of scripture? Do you struggle with some of the teachings of scripture and wonder if they could even really be true?
Are you closer to a ten, or are you closer to a one?
Are you firmly, absolutely sure that your sins are absolutely, 100% forgiven?
Or do you wonder, "Could God forgive me? Could God forgive my sins?" Do you struggle with whether God could really forgive a sinner like you?
Are you closer to a ten or are you closer to a one? Do you have a strong faith or a weak faith?
Sometimes when we look at people who have strong faith and then we look at people who have a weak faith, we think that there is a huge difference between the two. And, in a way there is, but in another way there is no difference. If someone with a very strong, firm faith were to die this instant, could you be sure they would go to Heaven? Our answer is "Of course!" Of course they would go to Heaven. We know that they would go to Heaven.
But, what about someone with a weak, flickering, faint faith that is just smoldering? If they were to die this very instant are you sure that they would go to Heaven? That is a critical and important question.
Did you know that the Bible says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved"? It doesn’t say, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with a really strong faith and you will be saved. It simply says, believe and you will be saved. It doesn’t matter the degree of your faith-however strong or how weak it may be. Jesus said, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." He did not say, whoever believes in Him with a strong faith shall not perish but have everlasting life. He said whoever believes, no matter how strong or how weak and flickering that faith may be. That is the promise the Bible makes!
At this point in the message, Rev. Bartels holds up a large leather brief case.
Just imagine that this brief case contains everything Jesus won for us. In this brief case is the forgiveness for every single sin that has ever been committed. In this brief case is the guarantee of eternal life in Heaven. In this brief case is a clean conscience toward God, because sins are forgiven.
If someone has a strong faith and he clings to the brief case tightly, how much of the contents in that brief case belong to him? All of it. It is all his. The forgiveness of sins is his. The promise of eternal life in Heaven is his. And, a clean conscious is his.
If someone holds onto this brief case with a weak faith, barely hanging on to it, how much of the contents are his? It is still all his! His sins are forgiven. All of his sins are forgiven! Heaven is still a promise to that person. That person has a clean conscious before God. That is what scripture teaches.
And so the Bible tells us that whether our faith is strong and we firmly cling to Christ our savior, or whether our faith is weak and flickering, everything that Jesus won for us is ours.
And so, to anybody who has a weak faith, and who is struggling and troubled about their faith, scripture brings to you confidence that salvation is yours! Your sins are all forgiven and you have home in Heaven!
But there is a big difference between strong faith and weak faith. The big difference is this: If I hold onto this brief case like this, (Rev. Bartels tightly grasps the brief case with both of his arms wrapped around it, holding it firmly to his chest.) and you come up to me and try to take it away from me, you are going to have a very hard time taking it away.
However, if I am hanging onto the briefcase like this, (This time Rev. Bartels holds the brief case’s handle simply with two fingers, dangling it out along side of him.) and you try to take it away, I can easily loose it.
The difference between strong faith and weak faith is that weak faith is in greater jeopardy of being lost.
So, what does our savior think about people who are weak in faith? Does He look at them and say, "You don’t pray to me very fervently and earnestly. In fact you seldom pray to me at all, so you are not important to me." Does He say to them, "It is so much easier for you to fall into sin and temptation. You don’t walk the kind of life that this person does, so you are not important to me." Does He say, "You don’t have a deep understanding of scripture and you don’t grasp all of the concepts in scripture like this person does, so you are not important to me." The answer to those questions is NO!
When we look at today’s scripture reading, we see the heart of our savior toward those who are weak in faith. What a beautiful picture it is! Here we find two disciples. One is named Cleopas, and we don’t even know the name of the other one. The faith of these two men was weak and frail. Their faith was fragile. They had believed that Jesus was the Messiah. They had believed that He was the one who would come into the world and save them from sin. And, now they believed he was dead. They had heard about the resurrection, but they were struggling to believe. How could Jesus really rise from the dead? Maybe He wasn’t the savior really, after all. Their weak, their weak and fragile faith was in great danger of being lost.
What does our savior do? Here it is Easter Day, and of all the places He could have gone, and of all the people He could have spent time with, He finds theses two disciples who are weak and frail in their faith! He acts as though that is all He has to do in the whole world, to go and be with those two disciples who were struggling in their faith! He wants to be there with them! He wants to build them up! And He wants to comfort them! He wants to strengthen them!
It is like a mother with three children. If two of them are strong and robust and the other one is weak and frail, certainly she loves them all the same, but won’t she especially care for the one who is weak and frail? And, that is exactly what we find Jesus doing, here in the scripture reading.
Jesus cares for the weak and the frail in their faith!
What a heart our savior has for every one of us, who struggles with a fragile, weak faith!
How we ought to be concerned with one another. We ought to have the heart of Christ. If we know of a brother or a sister who is weak and frail and struggling in their faith, shouldn’t our hearts be like Jesus toward the two disciples? Shouldn’t we go to them? Shouldn’t we find them and care for them? Shouldn’t we build them up and seek to strengthen them, so that their fragile faith will grow instead of being lost?
How is it that we can strengthen someone in their faith? Look at how our Savior did it, in today’s scripture reading. Our Bible tells us that Jesus explained to them, "Did not the Christ have to suffer these things, and then enter His glory?" And, then it goes on and says, "Beginning with Moses and the all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." And, then it goes on and says that later those two men looked at each other and said, "Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
What did Jesus use, to strengthen those two men, in their weak and fragile faith? Our savior used the Word of God. Oh how I wish I could have been in on that conversation! How I wish I could have walked with them, and heard how Jesus went back into the Old Testament and explained to them from scripture, who Jesus is and why He came and what He did! How their hearts began to burn within them, as the Holy Spirit began to work in their hearts, strengthening their weak and fragile faith!
Jesus certainly must have explained sin to them, beginning with Moses, in the beginning of the Bible. It tells how the world has fallen into sin, and all men will stand condemned before God, because of sin.
And, then Jesus must have explained to them, through scripture, how God loves sinners. It tells how He promised to send a savior.
And, then He must have explained from scripture who that savior would be. It tells that He would be one of "us". He would be a human being, coming to take our place. He would also be God, so that He would be strong enough to save us from all of our sins. Jesus explained how that Christ was to live a perfect life in our place so that He could give it to us as a free gift! He explained how that savior would go and die so that all of our sins could be paid for. And, how that savior had to rise from the dead, as proof that not only were our sins defeated but also all the effects of sin, including death itself, would be defeated!
And, as Jesus spoke those words of scripture, the hearts of those disciples burned within them and the Holy Spirit worked within them, and they grew! Their faith was strengthened!
They ultimately ran and told their friends, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." They shared their faith. Weak faith turned to strong faith.
When we are weak, and fragile and frail in our faith, where do we go? We go to the One Place, the Bible. The Bible teaches that our faith can be strengthened. The Bible says, "Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ." We must go to The Word. In The Word, the Holy Spirit works in our hearts. Our catechism says, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith." It is through that Gospel, in God’s Word, that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts and strengthens us.
Reading the Bible is not like reading a science book. Because I am a human being, I need air. I can read about air in a science book. But, just reading that there is such a thing as air, does me no good. I need to breathe air. I need to live in the air. The Bible doesn’t just tell us about a savior. It doesn’t just tell about the forgiveness of sins. It actually distributes to us the very forgiveness of sins, when it says, "Son be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you." We breathe in that air of the forgiveness of our sins. We breathe in the air of forgiveness in the Gospel, when Jesus says, "Neither do I condemn you." We breathe in that air when at the Lord’s Supper, we hear the Word of God where Jesus says, "This is my body. This is my blood, given for the forgiveness of your sins." There the Bible distributes to us that forgiveness.
We breathe in the forgiveness of sins!
It is our life!
And, it is our strength!
Through
God’s Word,
the Holy Spirit works to
strengthen our faith in our Savior!
As our faith in Christ grows stronger, our faith in all the promises of scripture grows stronger. We certainly know that if Jesus forgives us and He loves us, then His other promises are also true.
When I am in trouble,
He will be with me.
He will not forsake me.
When something happens that appears to be bad,
He will work it out for my good.
He will hear and answer my prayers.
He will lead me through death’s dark door.
Faith is strengthened through the Word. The Word is so important for each one of us, because we are weak, frail, fragile people. And, since there is always the danger that we could loose that faith, we must use God’s Word, so that our faith is strengthened, and so that we grow, standing firm in the faith.
And, it is so very important that we share that Word with our fellow brothers and sisters, especially those who are weak, frail and fragile, so that they too may be built up in their faith. We close with this prayer, which is a wonderful hymn.
Oh, for a faith that will not shrink,
Tho’ pressed by many a foe;
That will not tremble on the brink
Of poverty or woe;
That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath the chast’ning rod,
But in the hour of grief or pain
Can lean upon its God;
A faith that shines more bright and clear
When tempest rage without;
That, when in danger, knows no fear,
In darkness feels no doubt;
That bears unmoved the world’s dread frown
Nor heeds its scornful smile;
That sins wild ocean cannot drown
Nor Satan’s arts beguile;
A faith that keeps the narrow way
Till life’s last spark is fled
And with a pure and heavenly ray
Lights up the dying bed.
Lord, give us such a faith as this;
And then, whate’er may come,
We’ll taste e’en now the hallowed bliss
Of an eternal home.
Amen.
Top of Page
|| Church Sermons || Return to Home Page